Guidelines and application materials for Grants for Arts Projects funding are now available on the National Endowment for the Arts’ website at arts.gov/grants (The program was previously called “Art Works”). Applications for projects beginning in 2022 will be due February 10 & July 7, 2022. Grants range from $10,000 to $100,000 (including indirect costs), and require a 1:1 institutional cost share/match.

Application Limits

As an educational institution, Emerson College may submit only one application under these FY 2023 Grants for Arts Projects guidelines, with the following exceptions:

  • Applications for Ploughshares, ArtsEmerson, HowlRound, and WERS, each of which NEA has classified as an “independent component” of Emerson;
  • Emerson may submit more than one application in the Grants for Arts Projects category through the Media Arts discipline at the July 7, 2022, deadline.

If you are thinking of applying this year, please contact ORCS at your earliest convenience. Depending on the number of inquiries, the College may need to hold an internal competition to select a single project for submission.

Program Description

Grants for Arts Projects is NEA’s principal grants program for organizations based in the United States.

Through project-based funding, the program supports public engagement with, and access to, various forms of art across the nation, the creation of art, learning in the arts at all stages of life, and the integration of the arts into the fabric of community life. We encourage projects that address any of the following:

  • Elevate artists as integral and essential to a healthy and vibrant society
  • Celebrate the nation’s creativity and/or cultural heritage
  • Enrich our humanity by broadening our understanding of ourselves as individuals and as a society
  • Originate from or are in collaboration with the following constituencies encouraged by White House executive orders:
  • Historically Black Colleges and Universities
  • Tribal Colleges and Universities
  • American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes
  • African American Serving Institutions
  • Hispanic Serving Institutions
  • Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities
  • Organizations that support the independence and lifelong inclusion of people with disabilities.

In recognition of the United States of America’s 250th anniversary in 2026, we also welcome arts projects that educate and engage communities in dialogue about the past, present, and future of our nation.